Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland Betting Tips and Predictions

Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland predictions and betting tips for this World Cup 2018 qualifying match including a 4/1 anytime goalscorer tip.

 

Northern Ireland will get their World Cup qualifying campaign under way when they face Czech Republic in Prague on Sunday. Both sides will fancy their chances of qualifying for the play-off round with a favourable group and this is a vital game for both sides even if it is so early on in the qualifying campaign.

 

Czech Republic Team News, Preview and Form

New boss Karel Jarolim will be hoping to pick his side up after their poor showing in Euro 2016. They picked up one point from three games and never really threatened to make a mark in the tournament. As well as this, two veterans of the Czech Republic national team Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky retired after the European Championships and it will be interesting to see the national team without these legends of Czech football. They warmed up for this match with a 3-0 friendly win over Armenia and the manager used the majority of his squad as he made twelve substitutions throughout the game and tested a number of formations. I think that they will go with a traditional    4-4-2 formation against Northern Ireland as they try and keep it tight and not get beaten. With Cech and Rosicky out of the national team, they will look to Derby new boy Matej Vydra for inspiration as he tries to grab the goals that they lacked in the European Championships this summer.

 

Northern Ireland Team News, Preview and Form

Michael O’Neil and his team will still be on a high after qualifying from the group stage for the first time in their history at the European Championships. They took advantage of the new format and qualified with just three points but they were competitive in every match and made the fans from Northern Ireland proud to be Irish. They haven’t played a match since they lost in the last 16 of the Euros to Wales, but as mentioned earlier  they will fancy their chances of being at the World Cup in Russia in two years’ time. Their group contains Germany (who are obvious favourites) but then have Czech Republic, Norway, Azerbaijan and San Marino who are teams that Northern Ireland will be confident against. Will Grigg will not be on fire in Prague as he isn’t in the squad as his partner is expecting a baby, so Kyle Lafferty will probably lead the line and will be expecting to add to his impressive international goal record of seventeen goals in fifty-four international appearances.

 

Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland Predictions

 

Northern Ireland are renowned for being involved in games with not many goals in as shown with Under 2.5 goals in their previous five games and the past two meetings between these sides have ended 0-0, so I’m not expecting a thrilling game here. Under 2.5 goals is as short as 8/15 at Sky Bet, so I will be going for the Under 1.5 goal market which is obviously slightly more risky for my Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland betting tip, however the odds are a lot better so that’s why I will be backing under 1.5 goals in the match which is 13/8 at bet365.

 

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Anytime Goalscorer Tip

My second Czech Republic v Northern Ireland prediction is going to be for Kyle Lafferty to score at anytime. I am expecting him to start this game and he scored seven times in the qualifying campaign for the 2016 European Championships including three times away from home, so I think 4/1 for Lafferty to score anytime is fantastic value and you can find this at Ladbrokes.

 

Czech Republic vs Northern Ireland Betting Tips

Under 1.5 goals – 13/8 at bet365.

Kyle Lafferty to score anytime – 4/1 at Ladbrokes.

 

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